Corporate and Comedy

It's not often that BBC2 has four must-see programmes in one night. It's rare for BBC2 to have one must-see programme in one night. But tonight's line up of Dragon's Den, Extras, That Mitchell and Webb Look and The US Apprentice must be the best line up of any channel this year.

The first few series of Dragon's Den somehow completely passed me by and I only stumbled upon this one by accident. But now, I think it's the best thing on TV.

Set up like a businessman's Pop Idol, the show revolves around wannabe-entrepreneurs pitching their products in an attempt to persuade five successful multi-millionaires, the "dragons", to invest in their business. And like Pop Idol, it's the utterly clueless people thar provide the most entertainment. So far this series we've had life-changing inventions such as a cucumber preserver, a mobile church bells service and some kind of felt-tip pen that didn't actually work. And they're the better ones.

The dragons themselves make Simon Cowell look like Fern Britton. Totally and utterly intimidating, it's not surprising that most people just fall apart when making their pitch. Two of them, Duncan and Theo, have to be the most obnoxious, patronising and grumpiest people on TV, but the other three, for the most part, are usually quite fair and offer constructive advice e.g. don't give up your day job, rather than just totally humiliating them.

The one major flaw is that the show is utterly predictable. The first pitch is always done by someone who is on the verge of tears they're that nervous, the pitch in the middle usually interests one of the dragons enough to make an offer but it's usually too high and they get turned down. And the final pitch is always the one that gets the deal. Changing the running order once in a while wouldn't hurt.

I'm probably one of the few people who never got The Office. Yes, I'm sure it was clever but I didn't find it funny at all. However, Extras is excellent. Ricky Gervais just about manages to reign in his usual air of smugness enough to actually make his character and his scene-stealing best friend Maggie likeable, the celebrity cameos work really well and aren't self-conscious enough to make you think the only reason they're doing it is to prove they're able to laugh at themselves. And most importantly, it's very very funny. The Les Dennis episode last series was the most hilarious and at the same time, downright tragic, show of last year.

I've no idea if That Mitchell and Webb Look is any good but the trailer looks good, it's got great reviews and if it's even just a tenth as good as Peep Show, probably the best comedy show this decade, then it'll be worth watching.